I don’t know about you but my home is my refuge from the pollution and the world outside. I like my air clean, I like the dirt kept outside and I want the chemical exposure kept to a minimum.

The biggest air filter in our homes – our carpets, collect and hold contaminates on a daily basis waiting for you to remove with the vacuum. The sticky, greasy soil that you can’t remove ends up attracts soil and that is when you need me.

Certain carpet fiber types require certain cleaners to break down grease where that particular fiber loves to hold the oily soils. Other fibers are very easy to clean of oily soils but love to stain, while other fibers are very sensitive to what is used to clean them with. The task is to use something that is safe for me,  safe for you and your carpet fibers in order to remove all of that.

Carpet Cleaners have access to many safe cleaning agents today but they require a few additional steps at times in order to achieve what the hazardous speed cleaning chemicals can achieve. I don’t know of too many cleaners that use them anymore because many of us are not only concerned for your health and ours but also for any liability issues.

There have been some great advances in Carpet Cleaning equipment & tools that allow for very thorough flush & rinse of carpets that mean you get optimum cleaning results today. Residues of preconditioners are completely rinsed away. Getting a Green cleaning service with a Green preconditioner applied to your carpets and then completely flushed & rinsed away along with the soil means no more chemical or soap residues left in your carpet.

Our flush & rinse system actually rinses away the residues from your last carpet cleaner, especially if you had the Chemical Dry method used on your carpets last service where there was no extraction process. Although we use much more water in order to get your carpets to a total zero residue clean it is worth it. The old ways of high pressure rinsing with the older tools meant that some of the preconditioners were left deep in the carpet fibers. The dry cleaning methods have always been a culprit at rearranging the soil along with the cleaning chemicals because they have zero extraction capability except for very little absorption.  There is no rinse action with these methods.

Carpet Cleaning doesn’t have to dirty that way, it can be healthy and safe. Keeping the bad chemicals out the equation just for the sake of saving a little more time is a good thing for you and for us. All of our residential service is Truck Mounted Steam Cleaning. We always use a High Flow Flush & Rinse system to leave your home healthier than it was before we got there.

Our definition of  “Clean” is the true definition and this is why our service is much slower than the last that you may have had. New clients all the time are perplexed when they get a 2.5 – 3 hour service estimate. Like I said, it’s all about the Flush & Rinse not the Splash & Dash or the Dry Clean Scrub & Run.

Before I explain to you what Dry Foam is let us first decide what we want to accomplished during a carpet cleaning. We want to remove the soil, make your carpets look absolutely clean and leave you with zero soap or chemical residues.

So, in your home with a nice thick carpet that you like to walk on with bare feet, sit on, lie on or have the kids & pets play on, why would you want DRY FOAM chemical residue or soil left behind? Could it be because you read someone’s FEAR MARKETING that had the same old scare that ” Water is Evil & Dry is Good”?  I do provide Dry Foam Extraction Carpet Cleaning but I do my best to educate the customer with the facts. I do get a lot of Dry Foam Shampoo requests. Once I explain the process the customer will elect to have us Steam Clean the carpets. They are often worried of long dry times & wet carpet backings that will cause damage to wood sub-floors. This is not a problem because we don’t get the backing wet & we get the carpets dryer than we could ever get them if we did use the Dry Foam method. Quality Truckmount Carpet Cleaning achieves rapid dry times today when accomplished by a professional.

Every Carpet Cleaning should have Health as the first priority! That means removing the soils and leaving no residues in the carpet. Leaving the residue means new soil is attracted, it also means foreign substances are left behind that you will eventually breathe as it goes airborne.

Our procedure provides you with:

1. Healthy Carpet Cleaning service, Zero Residue left behind, total soil removal.
2. Carpet Cleaning that is gentle on carpet fibers as to not distort or unwind carpet fibers, in other words we don’t a damaged carpet.
3. Carpets that dry fast in just hours & not days. We don’t want several gallons of water left in the carpet after we leave.

What is Dry Foam Carpet cleaning? First let’s define Dry Foam Shampoo – it’s a shampoo of various types from encapsulation shampoo to plain old cheap sticky soap shampoo. The shampoo is mixed up or generated into a foam, since it is whipped up into a foam it was assigned the term Dry Shampoo for some reason!

There are two (2) forms: Dry Foam Extraction & Dry Foam Shampoo (there is zero extraction).

The Dry Foam extraction system that has been used for the last 30 plus years extracts 1/3 of all shampoo solution  applied. The rest remains in the carpet along with the dirt. If it is an encapsulating shampoo then it is believed that the remaining dirt is surrounded & encapsulated by the shampoo. When it dries it is claimed that you remove it when you vacuum the carpets 24 hours later.

The Dry Foam Shampoo (non-extraction) method uses a Floor Buffer machine with a Foam Generator that makes Dry Foam & scrubs it into the carpet leaving it behind and with the soil. Sometimes a nylon bonnet is used to absorb some of the soil & chemical shampoo and most of it remains behind.

Since residential carpets are much more plush than low level looped commercial glue down carpets there are just too many places residues can get trapped & so many places soil can hide. For this reason we Flush & Rinse these carpets clean via Truckmount Steam Cleaning. This is Deep Carpet Cleaning.

Dry Foam Carpet Cleaning takes anywhere from 1-6 hours to dry depending on the carpet fiber & whether it is commercial or residential. Truckmount carpet cleaning is about the same when done professionally.

Why is Dry Foam still used? Low start-up cost for the carpet cleaning business, it is not very labor intensive & more money can be made faster. We have it because we have a full tool box, many times we use this system in conjunction with other methods or as Power Scrub step prior to Truckmount Steam Cleaning on a very dirty job.

Our experience is that we leave 3% of the moisture behind. Our High Flow Flush & Rinse system ensures that your carpets are flushed from top to bottom, you can forget any residue being left behind. With this system carpets are left soft & fluffy instead of hard & crunchy.

Let’s focus on the word EXTRACTION, this is what Truckmount systems do! That means the dust mites, their feces, bacteria, fleas, soil & whatever else you have actually gets removed instead of being left behind.  Since Dry Foam cleaning does not extract that much so much of all of this is left behind on top of a chemical residue load. Would you really have your babies lay on the carpet a few days after having this type of service?

I have & use all methods & systems, I have no bias except for what I know what works best, unfortunatly Truckmount Steam Cleaning is superiour  for ResidentalCarpet Cleaning service. If the easier methods worked well such as Dry Foam then I would much rather use that & save on expensive truckmount steam equipment costs. It would be so nice not to have to run out hundreds of feet of hose and all the other equipment that is required but the fact is the dirt has to get removed and so do the chemical & soap residues. Because of this fact Truckmount Steam Cleaning is the only method that can truly clean your carpets.

In the past to be able to protect your carpets from stains & pre-mature wear (scratch) a carcinogenic & hazardous chemical had to be applied.

Those days are now over because today there is a safer way to protect your carpet investment: GREEN Carpet Protector.

<a href=”http://www.miracleserv.com/index.php” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”> Miracle Services, Inc.</a> Carpet & Floor Care now provides a safer alternative to Teflon & Scotchguard.

Our Miracle Protector is not only Safe for all living inhabitants but also for the planet. It is certified by the Synapse Handbook of Green Chemical Raw Ingredients, 2nd edition.

Cleaning Carpet is less expensive than replacing it. Today is not the time to invest in new carpet replacement costs. We that live in San Diego have to deal with a large amount of sand that damages carpet fibers by scratching them. Truckmount Carpet Steam Cleaning removes the particulate soils – sand & grit that you can not by normal vacuuming. Our powerful high pressure vacuum system will remove the deepest & most stubborn particulate soils.

Once your carpets have been deep cleaned it is time to apply that carpet protector to protect your carpet fibers from possible stains, provide you time to wipe up spills before they absorb into carpet fibers, fill in the scratched fibers, help keep your carpets cleaner longer & ensure periodic carpet cleaning are successful  without staining or excessive wear.

Normally we like to reapply the carpet protector at the 3rd cleaning but depending on your location in the county & the carpet fiber type we may recommend that you have it reapplied. It is really best to have it applied to the traffic lanes after every cleaning service.

I get the calls every week – “what method of cleaning do you use” and I have to reply – ” I use them all but I will always recommend Truckmounted Steam Cleaning“.

Many of those callers will recite to me the Fear Marketing Spin that the Chemical Dry company used to use: Wet Evil, Dry Good.

I’m a patient man but I have problems with people who can not use common sense & basically are sheep. We must think everything through before we make decisions and before we take anyone’s marketing or advertisements for gospel truth, we must do our research!

Before you get agitated at me let me explain a few things to you. I use all methods of cleaning, I have almost every system there is, just ask my wife who is barely able to fit her car into our garage and ask her what she thinks of me for investing in useless equipment that collects dust.

I started my business with all methods and cut my teeth on commercial carpet for a lot of years trying to perfect it. I have used & tried everything over the years and I can & will give you an unbiased opinion based on what I know first hand.

All methods are good for something and can be used successfully. Only one method is recommended by the majority of all carpet manufacturers and those that warranty the product. The single method carpet cleaner is biased & has become a cult member to his/her method & will convince themselves that they have found a miracle method. Some are smart enough to realize that the method they use does no really work but it is cheap & saves them on overhead. Experience carpet cleaners that are in this to exceed & provide quality cleaning use many methods or a combination of methods.

Hot Water Extraction(HWE) comes in two forms – Portable electric machines or Fossil Fuel powered truck-mounted machines with positive displacement vacuum blowers to provide you extreme powerful vacuum suction able to rinse carpets of large volumes of water that is required to flush & rinse them clean. High heat is provided by heat exchange units or fuel sourced heaters. Portable machines are no match for Truckmounted units but are better than nothing when the truck can not reach. The problem with portable machines is that they require electricity & have a habit of tripping breaker so that the high power that is required for portable machines can not be manufactured, instead low power is used to keep these machines operational.

The bottom line is Flush, Rinse, Extraction, Extraction, Extraction! Yes, a large volume of water must be used to properly clean anything. You know this because you have washed your hair in the shower before, try that with a Dry Cleaning process & let me know how that went.

Next, we want the carpet to Dry Fast! After all that water flush & rinse action it should dry fast because not only was all the dirt rinsed out but so was all that water! if done right by a professional – operator then it will dry fast.

So, not only do we use the evil water to flush & rinse your carpets clean of all soil, bacteria & residue, we also get them Dry Quick, by the time we leave or very close to it! How much quicker than the Dry Cleaner? Just as fast! The only difference is that we used a large amount of water to ensure that it was clean & residue free!.

The Dry Cleaning Process – uses very little moisture, some call it “Low Moisture” but it isn’t. The rage is to apply a very fine mist of a Chemical application & rub it in with a high speed Floor Buffer like Janitors use to polish floors. This is the cheap mans method, costs very little to operate and removes very little soil! This method alone does not equate to clean! Where did the soil go, where did the chemical go? There is no extraction process instead the dirt just gets rearranged. Several cheap start-up companies go this way & rely on the old Fear Marketing Scams to pimp these methods. You hear fear language like Mold, Wet, Damage & Shrinkage. Common sense tells you that mold requires an organic environment to grow & survive but 99% of all residential carpet is Synthetic, Wet, you betcha, it takes water to get it clean but not wet for long! Damage, the 2nd most important reason that Floor Buffer Dry Cleaning will void your warranty besides it not really cleaning is that it will Damage your carpet fibers by Blooming the Tips of the fiber tips, I see it every day. Truckmount Carpet Steam Cleaning does not damage seams or carpet fibers because of the gentle cleaning method rather than the heavy aggressive floor buffer method. As far as Shrinkage goes, well as you probably already know: Synthetic Fibers do not Shrink! This is all 50’s & 60″s rhetoric that has been used over & over like a broken record from those that continue to use & operate ancient technology & try to spin it into a “New Trend Hi-Tech” cleaning method that has been just discovered.

With all the methods & systems that I have you must ask yourself why a 51 year old Carpet Cleaner would rather use a very labor intensive method of cleaning, a very expensive system to operate & much more time consuming compared to Dry Cleaning? It just does not make sense right? I sleep at nights knowing that I provided the very best for my clients, I’d rather take the cheap and easy route, make more money faster but it isn’t right! If you want another method of cleaning & I can’t talk you out of it then I will provide you the method of your choice.

You want the dirt removed, You want no residue left in the carpet, You want is safe, You want it done professionally & You want it to dry fast. Do yourself a favor if you doubt me, call me after you have it Dry Cleaned & let me clean 1 room for you and I will give you back the dirty water I extracted, you can then decide if you are still skeptical.

We

There are a lot of definitions of “Green” and it has become a new cult religion with Al Gore as it’s  $$$ prospering guru. Everyone wants Green regardless whether it is or not because it makes them feel like they did something good.

In the carpet cleaning world I define it this way: Maintaining cleaning standards by using “Human Safe” products and eliminating any cleaning residues! There are so called “Green” products that are not Human Safe but they are acceptable for the environment. Citrus Cleaners contain a natural solvent that are harmful to us but natural to the planet so are many other poisons. Certain Chemicals are considered to be green since they do not bother the environment. These type of green cleaners contain warnings & hazards to us.

There are methods of carpet cleaning that involve Floor Buffers that many call Dry Carpet Cleaning. A chemical is applied to the carpet and buffed into the carpet with the dirt. They use a nylon bonnet on the bottom of the machine to buff with and will claim that this removes the dirt but common sense says not so! They claim this Green Carpet Cleaning because they arrived to your home with a small fuel efficient vehicle since carrying a Floor Buffer doesn’t require a large vehicle and the method of what they claim -  cleaning only requires a couple gallons of water. Sure the carbon foot print is smaller while using your electricity to clean with (which requires fuel at the other end) and  they are proud to have saved water. But at what expense to you?

We take the approach that we are providing a Human Safe & Hygiene service. Removing the the dirt, pet urine, feces, bacteria and everything else that exists in your carpet is important to your indoor environmental health. This requires water.  By applying our “true” Green & Organic or Non-Toxic cleaning solutions to your carpet & then flushing, rinsing and extracting all of that away with water we leave you without the typical chemical residues. I don’t have to worry about working with hazardous chemicals and you don’t have to worry about hazardous cleaning chemical residues.

Everything that we use is carefully checked by the ingredients list and the MSDS sheet. Since Green sells & is big money it is up to us to do our own research and verification and use common sense.

I’m not a Green Freak by any means, I just don’t like nasty chemicals  and since my job involves being around that kind of thing I have made the choice & commitment to find a better way. This requires an assortment of specialty tools and methods.

When we come to your home we evaluate the carpet fiber type, soil condition and your special health requirements. Then we apply the correct cleaning solution that is either completely Natural/Organic, our Green solution or our Non-Toxic solution for those extreme dirty situations.

Whatever we use you count on Human Safe products first & then for the environment. Trust me on this – If it is Human Safe then it is environmentally safe! If it was all labeled that way then there wouldn’t be such a mystery.

On this page we will talk about the different materials that carpets are commonly made from and the benefits and negatives of each type.

Olefin (Polypropylene)

Olefin carpet is generally a lower cost carpet. It has many positive traits however. One is that it absorbs very little moisture and because of that, it is hard to stain. It is also usually solution dyed. Solution dyed Olefin cannot be bleached because the color runs all the way through the fiber, not just on the surface. As for the negative, it has a very low melting point. Olefin can often be melted just by dragging a piece of furniture across it. It also has an affinity towards grease so it attracts grease and oil like a magnet. Olefin also crushes very easily, meaning that traffic lanes will appear flat and matted rather quickly.

Nylon

The most common carpet fiber. Nylon is much more durable than Olefin and also slightly more expensive. It doesn’t have the same attraction to grease but it will stain easier unless treated with a good protectant. Nylon is usually etched and dyed after it is produced so the color is only on the surface and can be bleached. Some solution dyed nylons are now available though to solve this problem. A solution dyed nylon carpet may be one of the most durable carpets made.

Wool

Wool carpet is very expensive but is also very durable. It resists matting and crushing and normal traffic soiling cleans well.  It is also very soft to the touch and has a very vibrant color. Some wools can shrink if over wet and staining from some spills can be a problem. Also some may be allergic to wool since it is after all fur. Wool is only available as a staple fiber. With staple fibers the individual tufts are essentially gathered bunches of loose threads and have a tendency to shed.

There are several methods of carpet cleaning available from several hundreds of carpet cleaning companies in San Diego County. There are the most inexpensive cleaning methods on the carpet cleaning company – low overhead or the most expensive cleaning method on the carpet cleaning company – high overhead.

Your low overhead methods are also very easy & require less amount of labor intensity. Your higher overhead methods require high labor intensity.

Is it rocket science that the high labor intensive method, high overhead method – Truckmounted Steam Cleaning cleans carpet rather than leave large amounts of soil & chemical residues in the carpet? Are Truck mounted carpet steam cleaners stupid & uneducated to take the higher road rather than the cheaper road?

I am an all method carpet cleaning company in San Diego – Miracle Services, Inc. I have used Dry Cleaning methods for years and I can give you an honest unbiased opinion. My tool box is complete with every tool for the job & I don’t have to try & put a spin on my single tool/method to try & get you to buy off on it. I would love to work on a shoe string budget & put more money in my pocket but for business ethics & moral purposes I prefer to provide a true product of CLEAN!

Old 1950’s technology is still being used today – Janitor Floor Buffers & old Shampoo Machines. Carpet warranties state that these other methods will void your warranty, you should read it. Ask yourself why in the world would they only recommend Truckmounted steam cleaning?

Sure the Dry Cleaning companies use the fear marketing that the Chemical-Dry Franchise started to scare the heck out of you – Soaked carpets for weeks & Mold! They have even gone as far as to state that the carpets will rot & shrink. Well, synthetic carpet will not shrink, it will not rot because it is organic & for that same reason it will not grow mold. True, cheap carpet cleaning companies with portable machines or even inexperienced cheap truckmount companies will not take the time to clean your carpets & remove all the water – you get what you pay for, too good to be prices are always too good to be true since time began.

Ironic that the same Chemical-Dry franchise company that now works for Home Depot now uses Truckmounted Steam Cleaning. Oh, they have changed the name so as not to be hypocritical to Hot Carbonated Extraction and use a Jet Rotary Extractor as many of us do but it is Truckmounted Steam Cleaning. Why did they go this route? Could it be that the cheap Dry Cleaning method did not work, consumers got tired of the carpets looking dirty again 2 days later & all the spots resurfacing? Could it be that too many consumers asked themselves “how does the dirt get removed”?

Yes, truck mounted steam cleaning with it’s powerful gas engine, powerful solution pump, powerful postive displacenet vacuum pump, super hot water heater is the only to clean carpets – period. Why? To break down, suspend soils & extract them, bacteria, pollens, dust mites & you name it that is in your carpet stright out into the truck to take it away. You get carpets that are flushed free of chemical residues from the last Dry Cleaner and fresh carpets that have been totally rinsed & free of soil & residues.

What about wet carpet pads & sub floors? Yes, maybe back in 1960 when they used under powered portable machines & maybe still today from other cheap outfits that still operate like they did some 40 years ago. We Rapid Speed Dry all of our work plus we use high performance Truckmounts & High Performance Truckmount tools. The days of 3 day dry times are out the window, it is 2008! You will find that your professional Truckmounted Carpet cleaner will have your carpets dry in hours not days. We like to get out work dry by the time we leave or just close to it.

I bet you take your hair into the shower to clean it rather than mist on some cleaner & rub it in your head with a rag & claim it’s clean with a great benefit that it dried right away. Same thing goes with Truck Mounted Steam Cleaning!

Dr. Michael Berry, in his book “Protecting the built Environment: Cleaning for Health.” says that most indoor cleaning problems are related to dirty carpets, but this problem can be solved through maintenance and restoration.

Carpets act like a sink to collect pollutants of all kinds from indoors and out, according to Berry. As the sink gets filled up (the carpets get polluted), it stores more and more dirt, dust and contaminants. When the sink is full, it needs to be emptied. If a carpet is not cleaned on a regular basis, it can become a breeding ground for biopollutants, Berry says. It is crucial to regularly empty the sink and make sure that your carpets are cleaned properly.

Berry says that the medical community recommends that people remove carpets from buildings and homes, but that is wrong to assume that all carpet will become contaminated and affect peoples health. Rarely do people clean their carpets in an effort to protect their health, Berry says, but cleaning carpet regularly can improve indoor air quality.

Some of the benefits of extracting pollutants from carpets include: Reducing health problems from loose particles; reducing cases of biologically induced illness; reducing lifetime cancer risks; reducing complaints for building owners and managers; and reducing liability for building owners and managers.

Adam Doling , Assistant Manager Editor

Cleanfax

Dr. Michael Berry of the EPA has this to say about carpet cleaning.. .. ..

“I have reached the conclusion that carpeting and fabrics not cleaned and properly maintained have the potential to cause a variety of health problems inside the building environment.”

“….every time carpets and fabrics are emptied of their pollution build-up through professional cleaning methods, there is a health benefit.”

“We are also finding that typical vacuuming does not reduce fine particle levels indoors. Fine particles of less than 7 microns pass on through vacuum cleaning bags.  These particles tend to build up over time and have the greatest potential to cause harm as they penetrate deep into the human lung.” (This is why we recommend sub-micron bags or HEPA filters on your vac.)

“From a public health perspective I would find it impossible to justify the installation of carpets indoors without the existence of effective cleaning methods using environmentally-sound cleaning technology by individuals properly trained in the application of those methods and technology.”

“Until such time as the fibres are cleaned the potential for human exposure and health risk remains high.”

“….the benefit of extracting is the overall reduction of reparable particles which cause most health effects, reduced cases of biogradically induced illnesses, reduced lifetime cancer risks, and reduced complaints and liability for building owners and managers.”